The Smithsonian’s Renwick Gallery reopens Friday, Nov. 13, with 51 objects from its craft collection, including more than 30 recent acquisitions. The Washington, D.C., museum had closed temporarily to install the works. It will return to its regular hours of 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. daily, with free admission and no passes required for a regular visit.

The Friday open house, scheduled for 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the second-floor galleries, is listed as sold out on the museum’s visitor page. That event includes conversations with artists and curatorial staff. The Smithsonian’s exhibition listing lists the installation as ongoing, so visitors can see the work on a later day without an event reservation.

What’s in the installation

The museum organized Handwork: Contemporary Craft around five ways people experience objects, including touch, movement, sound and memory. That gives pieces made from familiar materials such as wood, fiber and ceramics a place alongside work using car-wrap vinyl, acrylic nails or honeybee wings. The exhibition page shows how far that range extends. Jan Yager’s Tiara of Useful Knowledge combines gold and oxidized silver with a quartz pebble, bringing a material someone could pick up outdoors into a piece of jewelry.

The museum names Wendell Castle’s Ghost Clock among the collection pieces visitors can see. It looks like a tall clock under a sheet. Castle carved the object from laminated mahogany, then bleached the wood to give the upper part the look of white cloth. The older sculpture will be on view alongside new acquisitions by artists including glassmaker Aya Oki and Bill Harris of the Catawba Nation. Eleven works in the installation came through the nationwide Handwork 2026 initiative organized by Craft in America. People outside Washington can follow the same national project through two new Craft in America episodes, North and South. The series producer says both will start streaming Nov. 13 on the PBS app and the producer’s website, ahead of their Dec. 18 television premiere.

Getting to the Renwick

The gallery is at Pennsylvania Avenue and 17th Street NW, across from the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. The museum’s access page directs visitors who need a ramp to the 17th Street entrance. Elevators serve all floors. Farragut West is the nearest stop for the Blue, Orange and Silver lines, and Farragut North is nearby on the Red Line. The Renwick is part of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, whose main building and the National Portrait Gallery share a different address in Penn Quarter.